Nav Canada Launches ADS-B Program

By 2009, Nav Canada plans to install ADS-B ground stations around Hudson Bay, which straddles high-latitude flight paths between Asia, North America and Europe but has no radar coverage. Currently, aircraft overflying the area must observe “procedural” separations that keep them approximately 80 miles apart, compared with five miles under radar monitoring. Some 35,000 flights transit Hudson Bay each year, and Nav Canada says ADS-B will save operators more than C$200 million in reduced fuel costs over 15 years. Following the Hudson Bay installations, ADS-B will be extended to cover remote areas across northern Canada that lack radar coverage but have significant lower-altitude aviation activity. Subsequently, systems will be installed in southern Canada to link with FAA installations along the border with the U.S.